Things Are Not as they Appear
by CocoaSamurai45
Summary: Sophie has been hearing weird things in the night and Howl has been acting strange.What could Howl be up to? Something that could get himself cursed, perhaps? Or could it be something so bad Sophie would actually curse him herself!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Howl's Moving Castle so don't sue. I'm po' anyway. Read and be happy.

**Things Are Not As They Appear**

_**N**_othing. Not a thing. She must have been imagining it. Howl's various trinkets and bobs made wild whizzing sounds in the dark but she paid no attention to them. She grew used to the noise after a week of sleeping in Howl's room. Of course she had never gotten very comfortable in the bed beside Howl but she eventually went to sleep listening to his calm breathing. Nights in the moving castle never ceased to surprise her. Howl was sleeping quietly beside her, new blond locks in adorable disarray. Howl was the only one that would even consider staying up this late.

She could almost hear Michael's clipped snores from down the hall and she relaxed a little. Maybe it was just Calcifer making all that racket so they would wake up and give him attention. Calcifer was known for experimenting and running wild a little after hours. Maybe it was that dumb dog scratching at one of the doors. Whatever it was Sophie knew that Howl and Calcifer were more than enough protection- at least in most cases.

Sophie sighed a little gustily just to see Howl's hair lift and fall gently back over his eyes. And she turned over to get some more sleep. Her lids felt so heavy..._SCRATCH SCRATCH!_

"Huh?" Sophie turned to Howl debating wether to shake him awake or not. Howl had looked so tired when he had come home she couldn't bring herself to shake him awake. She set her face and slipped out of their bed. Howl made a small noise but didn't wake. Sophie was surprised noone else had awoken to the strange noise; It was quite loud.

Hesitantly she opened the door a fraction of an inch. She could see nothing but darkness except for a small glimmer of light from a quietly snoring Calcifer. Looking up at the ceiling and down at her feet she wondered if maybe her time as an old woman had somehow made her hear things or perhaps just made her a bit paranoid.

Frowning, she made her way quietly back to Howl. Perhaps she had been on the brink of deep sleep and she had only imagined the sounds. She hoped that was all. She flipped back the covers, gave an annoyed sigh, and buried her face in her pillow. In the morning she would see about those funny noises. For now, she wanted some sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Uh...this is pretty much the part where I say that I don't own Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle. I don't. Go away-er-I mean read! Ignore that sentence!

**Chapter Two**

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**_H_**owl woke up hot but very comfortable. The first thing he saw when he managed to crack one eye open was a mass of light_ light _hair. Strands tickling his eyelids and filling his mouth. He bet he had ingested a handful of hair in his sleep. He laughed through a content yawn. Sophie was turned on her side away from him breathing very deeply. This barely elicited the shock he might have felt a few days ago. Sophie was usually up before him cooking breakfast or cleaning up after Michael and Heen, but since her recent swap of sleeping arrangements she seemed quite content to sleep in.

He was compelled to roll her over and kiss her but decided against it when he heard a small yelp from the main room. He sighed in mild irritation and rolled out of bed. Michael was probably running around the potions again with little Heen wobbling and crawling after him. Sophie needed sleep, he would wake her later. Besides, she was very cute when she was buried under his blankets. The sharp contrast of colors made her hair glow around her. He tucked her unkept hair behind her ears and turned her head slightly so her face wasn't hidden beneath the thick covers. There, now he could see her clearly.

He kissed her gently on her nose and left to go and start breakfast. Maybe she would be so happy that she wouldn't go see Turnip Head. Howl knew that was not going to happen but it was certainly worth a try; Howl was hopeful by nature but also selfish. Whistling softly under his breath and jogging jauntily downstairs he was met with two very strange things. The first was Michael who was whispering earnestly to Calcifer an angry expression on his round face. Calcifer, Howl saw, was looking as surly as ever.

"So you can't even greet me with a simple 'Good morning, Howl'? I am wounded, Calcifer." Howl made a dramatic gesture before ducking instinctively as Calcifer chucked a nearby bowl at his head. This was starting to become quite frequent, Howl mused. He shrugged mentally, at least it wasn't Sophie hitting him with food containers. She had quite an arm and with magic on her side she could bewitch the pans to keep hitting him until he apologized. Of course he could stop it quite easily but he wouldn't deny her the pleasure of doing magic on her own. He made _so_ many sacrifices for her...

Sophie awoke to someone humming downstairs. Calcifer? Michael? Howl? She listened closely, a smile stretching her lips. Yes, it was Howl. Why was he so happy? Chances were he had already had his moment of hysterical drama and he was eating something. Sophie was usually up before him and cooking breakfast. For Howl to be up before her and humming as though he hadn't done his usual routine of bathing for 2 hours, complaining about being ignored, complaining about the breakfast, complaining about Sophie not caring enough about him to stay with him in bed, then sulking for the rest of the morning. Being cheery this early was so out of character for Howl that Sophie's smile faded away quite quickly.

Stumbling out of bed she made her way downstairs, red gold hair wildly flying and the hem of her nightgown clutched tightly in one white fist.

"Sophie! Darling!" Howl gushed and went to hug her. Sophie frowned at his happy expression as he crushed her to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked skeptically. Howl made a face. "Does something have to be wrong for me to be happy and to greet my sweetheart when she wakes?" Sophie knew he was laying it on pretty thick. She sighed just a tad gustily expressing as she never failed to do, her impatience with him.

"Howl, must you make everything so dramatic? I'm only worried that you're up so early and so happy about it! I've never seen you this way."

Howl frowned again, green eyes sparkling with mischief. So he was up to something. That might explain the sour faces of Michael and Calcifer and maybe even those strange scratching noises. Of course that was a bit much to hope for but she was up for any explanation.

"Sophie, is something the matter?" She shook her head rather quickly, too quickly for Howl's liking but since this is not his narrative as of yet I won't go into detail. Maybe he wasn't up to something. His eyes always sparkled but maybe they weren't with mischief. Huh, she would have to think about this later. Breakfast was starting to sound really good.

But before she could even fetch a pan to fry some bacon Michael stopped her in her tracks. His voice sounded just a little high which usually meant that he was very stressed. "Sophie, you didn't hear any strange sounds last night did you? Calcifer says I'm losing it and Howl won't talk to me because I didn't say good morning to him!" Sophie ignored the parts about Calcifer and Howl and thought about the strange noises. Poor Michael must have heard them too.

"As a matter of fact, I did. I thought it might have been Heen or you, Calcifer, running about like you had no sense." Calcifer humphed. Howl looked thoughtful and Michael looked just as curious as Sophie at his serious expression. Seeing as he wasn't going to say anything on the matter right away Sophie busied herself with breakfast. She's expected Howl to laugh at their naivete and explain the matter in such a simple manner that they would all feel foolish for thinking it was anything serious.

Hmmm. Must be pretty unimportant for Howl not brag about it. She went back to breakfast. There would definitely be a discussion after breakfast. That slither-outerer wouldn't get out of this one.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N sorry it took so long for me to post this. Just enjoying summer and trying to relax a little with my friends. I'll try to put new chapters up as much as I can. Thanz for all the support and keep it coming! (I know my grammar sucks but commas are almost gone on my keyboard and so are the exclamation points...oops?)

Howl was getting worried. Sophie and Michael were getting very suspicious. He could feel little beads of sweat on his forehead. Suddenly he had an idea. An idea that would at least get him away from the curious look on Michael's face and the sharp one on Sophie's.

"I think I'm going to go take a bath." He got up, not bothering to look over his shoulder as he knew what he would see: two pairs of suspicious eyes and one pert nose that just couldn't stay out of his business. Making his way up the stairs he could have sworn he heard Sophie mutter something, but he dismissed it in the favor of more interesting subjects...

"Slither-outerer," Sophie muttered a little loudly so that-if he was listening- Howl could hear and know she knew exactly what he was doing.

She also knew he was going away later that evening.

Something about Megan and possessed eating utensils. She supposed one of the wards Howl had placed on Megan's home without her knowledge was going wonky.

She hadn't been listening when he told her and now it didn't even matter. Howl would be gone and she could figure out just what he was up to.

But then he'd probably kept her snooping tendencies in mind...Well, he wasn't that hard to get to! She was practically his wife anyway and he couldn't hide anything from a person he lived with.

Although he'd hidden the fact that Calcifer had possessed his heart from her quite well. But now that they really knew each other Sophie couldn't imagine Howl keeping such big secrets from her again.

Except for now of course. She just knew it was something involving her. Maybe even Michael. That scratching at the door and the way he was acting toward her. He was planning something. And if it was something he didn't want her to know about...well, it must be bad.

Few and far between was how Sophie liked her doses of surprise. Surprises created trouble which often affected her the worst.

There were nasty surprises that left her wishing she were invisible. Visiting Howl's beloved teacher Mrs. Pentstemmon was an example of a horrible surprise. Also getting turned into an old woman was right up there beside it.

Nice surprises that made her feel pleased only after the shock wore away and she felt thoroughly self-conscious even though she was pleased. Like being with Howl.

Then there were surprises that were not really surprises like Sophie having to stay at the hat shop because she was the oldest of three.

And whatever Howl was working on she was afraid it was situated firmly in the 'horrible surprises' category. And Sophie didn't want herself to feel the need to be invisible ever again.

From Sophie's experiences as an old woman being wanting to be invisible was a terrible waste of time. It didn't do anything except make people pity you, maybe take advantage of you and left you feeling very put out and lonely at the end of the day.

Howl looked himself over in the tall mirror once more before exiting the bathroom. Today he was going to go and visit his family and try to hide everything so Sophie wouldn't find it.

Press the little button. I know you want to.


End file.
